Accra, April 23, GNA-Ms Bertha Mawusi Kwami, Vice President of Ebenezer Senior High School Old Students Association-1982 Year Group, has admonished past students at the school to contribute their quota towards its development.
She said this would help address the numerous developmental challenges the school faced and improve academic work.
She made the call at the handing over of a renovated classroom to the management of the school and the launching of the 40th Anniversary and Homecoming celebration by the 1982-Year Group.
Founded in 1941 as a day school, the institution currently has over 1,700 student populations.
However, the school is bedevilled with a plethora of challenges, including abandoned projects.
Notably among them is a seven-unit classroom block which was started in 2012 but was yet to be completed a decade after.
A girls’ dormitory which commenced in 2008 and a science and ICT laboratories, which started in 2016, have all stalled for years.
Ms Kwami said old students’ contribution to schools’ development could not be underestimated.
She said unlike in the past when government funded every project in schools, old students’ contributions to the development of projects had become more critical as the government struggled to raise funds for other projects.
Ms Kwami, therefore, appealed to Old Paduans to come to the aid of the school to ensure that the numerous projects that had stalled were completed to serve the purpose for which they were started.
“Every year, a year group does something, but we also tell them that they should come and help. Gone were the days when the government funded everything. Now, they do not have the money, it is we who must do that, so they should all come together and make the school stronger,” she said.
“As our group has said repeatedly in this school, anytime we decide to assist the school in any way, it is not because the Padua 1982-year group, and other affiliate members are predisposed to display our largesse. No! That is not the point.
“The only reason that we continue to help the school through thick and thin is to inculcate in the current generation of students that, when they also finish with their courses and move out of the confines of this school, they should also come back in the future, donate and assist the school,” she said.
Ms Kwami urged the management of the school and students to cultivate a positive maintenance culture to ensure that the refurbished classroom and other properties belonging to the school lasted longer.
In 2020, the Old Students Association initiated a Gh¢5million Regeneration Project, as part of efforts to improve the school’s infrastructure, create a more conducive teaching and learning environment for students and staff for effective academic work and give the school a facelift.
Ms Kwami assured us of the group’s continuous support for the school.
Activities earmarked for the 40th anniversary and homecoming celebration include seminars, inter-house quiz competitions, dinner, medical check-ups, and other social games.
Ms Anastasia Afua Konadu, Headmistress of Ebenezer SHS, commended the old student’s association and, the 1982-year group for their continuous support of the school.
She appealed to the government, corporate organisations, benevolent individuals and to help fast-track the completion of the numerous that had stalled.
GNA